As Sony struggle to make a mere US$289 million dollar profit for the quarter, arch rival Samsung Electronics has delivered a whopping US$3.6 billion for the quarter.
Samsung’s profit was 83 per cent higher than the$1.94 Billion it earned in the April to June period of 2009.
According to a statement issued out of Korea this morning Samsung saw a rise in demand for flat panel TVs and a significant decline in mobile phone sales.
The company, which is expected to become the world’s largest technology manufacturer by sales, benefitted from a big increase in demand for their memory, processors and display screens for mobile phones.
A key client is Apple who uses Samsung made products in their mobile phones, and iPods.
The company’s digital media division which includes TVs and is the company’s largest by revenue experienced a 20 per cent jump in revenue but saw its profits weaken sharply.
The division’s operating profit margin was 2.5 per cent, down from 9.5 per cent a year ago. The division is the world’s largest maker of TVs by units and revenue.
Its operating profit margin in the chip division jumped to 30.8 per cent and their LCD display business was up 31 per cent higher than a year ago, its operating margin was 11.3 per cent, up from 4.2 per cent a year ago.
Samsung executives said they expected the third quarter to be more of the same-widening margins in the component businesses and more squeeze on profits in consumer products.
“We will continue to focus on introducing differentiated products and widening our technology leadership in components to meet these difficult market conditions,” Robert Yi, the company’s chief of investor relations, said in a statement.
Revenue in the latest quarter was 37.9 trillion won, up 17 per cent from 32.5 trillion won a year ago.
The biggest gains were in the company’s semiconductor division, where sales were up 55 per cent compared with a year earlier.
Samsung, the world’s largest maker of memory chips for computers and other gadgets, is benefiting from the combination of increased demand for those chips and constrained supply after producers scaled back on building new factories during the economic downturn.
Samsung’s mobile business which will be buoyed by the launch of the Galaxy S experienced a 4 per cent decline in sales revenue despite shipping 17 per cent more units. Its operating profit margin fell to 7.2 per cent from 10.8 per cent a year ago.
Samsung shipped 63.8 million phones, up from 52.3 million a year ago but slightly below the 64 million it shipped in the first quarter.
